NewsArtists
‘Britain’s most important political artist’ Peter Kennard joins London gallery
Richard Saltoun exhibition will include artist’s earliest works incorporating newspaper images
PreviewExhibitions
Can artists change the world? MoMA show explores political art from the early 20th-century
The works on paper from the Merrill C. Berman Collection include designs for Communist posters and salad oil advertisements
NewsChina
Consulates provide new safe haven for political art in China
Artists tackling contentious issues have found an unlikely home in the form of foreign diplomatic services such as the Goethe-Institut and consular residences
NewsPrizes
Exiled Kurdish artist—who smuggled paintings from her Turkish jail cell—wins inaugural Carol Rama Award
Zehra Doğan was imprisoned for nearly three years under terrorism charges for work of art shared on Twitter
NewsAppointments & departures
Influential political cartoonist Steve Bell dropped by the Guardian newspaper after 40 years
Biting satirist looks to art history for some of his caricatures, such as a recent sketch of Boris Johnson as Mona Lisa
ReviewBook Shorts
Political cartoonist Gerald Scarfe tells the story of his life and work in new book
For more than 60 years the rapier-sharp pen has wounded his enemies deeply and he has met all the great and the good of our day
ReviewBook Shorts
Peter Kennard’s artistic political commentaries cloy when they are presented altogether as they are in this book
The artist’s unremitting commitment to the Left may be commendable, but has limited his development as an artist
NewsHong Kong
As crisis deepens, activists stage pro-democracy exhibition in Hong Kong
Show at WMA Space tells the “story of HongKongers” through protest ephemera
ArchiveExhibitions
Tate Modern chronicles the rise of Black Power in post-war America
Soul of a Nation includes around 150 works looking at the realities of the African American experience
ArchiveExhibitions
Rebellion show marks 1967 Detroit riot
Organised by the Detroit Institute of Arts, it is one of many commemorative events occurring throughout the city
ArchiveExhibitions
Forged in war, revolution and turmoil, works head for Les Rencontres d’Arles
The annual photography festival assembles works that open up doors closed by political turbulence
ArchiveExhibitions
Saudi Arabian artist Gharem’s first US solo show escapes shadow of 9/11
Political and poignant, Gharem's art reflects on one of the defining moments of the 21st century
ArchiveCopyright
The verdict that flies in the face of art history: Luc Tuymans guilty of copyright infringement
A Belgian court recently found Tuymans guilty, a ruling that ignores appropriation’s vital role in art over the centuries and has worrying implications for the future
ArchiveExhibitions
Artists confront violence across the Middle East in new exhibition opening in Amsterdam
“Fight History” is the second in the "Crisis of History" series on at the Tolhuistuin
ArchiveArtist interview
Interview with Mike Nelson: On the biennale, Turkey, and being “not quite sure what installation is…”
His work at the Venice Biennale has meant rebuilding an installation inside a rebuilt caravanserai within the British Pavilion
ArchiveArtist interview
Interview with Jonathan Meese: "I am the samurai of art”
The German artist explains why he puts aggression and provocation centre stage—along with his mum
ArchiveArtist interview
Interview with Shirin Neshat: “For Iranian artists, being silent is like taking the side of the demon”
As her debut movie, “Women Without Men”, screens in Basel, the artist explains that cinema is closer to her people
ArchiveValencia
Museo Valenciano de la Ilustración director steps down
Follows censorship controversy
ArchiveArtist interview
Interview with Jenny Holzer: In her own words (or not, as the case may be)
The American artist on her “odd and lonely” childhood, other people’s texts and why she’s returned to painting
ArchiveArtist interview
Why paintings succeed where words fail: Interview with Luc Tymans
The Belgian artist talked to us about the messages art can convey on the eve of exhibitions in Europe, Russia and the United States
ArchiveArtist interview
Interview with Grayson Perry: The “The Guernica of the credit crunch”
Perry is about to show his most ambitious work, a huge tapestry depicting images of consumer excess and retribution
ArchiveIraq
Two artists and an soldier are taking the war in Iraq to the American people
A British conceptual artist, an Iraqi artist, and a US soldier who served in Iraq travelled from New York to Los Angeles with the remains of a car destroyed in a Baghdad bomb attack in tow
ArchiveIraq
Interview with Jeremy Deller on tackling the troubled legacy of Iraq War
Turner prize-winner to take the controversial show on a three-week tour of the US in late March
ArchiveArt fairs
The Disarmory presents artists who have conceptually disarmed a work of their choosing
Themed events at the fair include, “Armed and Dangerous” and “The Wartime Ball”, taking place this weekend
ArchiveMuseums
Pakistan’s contemporary museum launches with anti-war art
President Musharraf has encouraged artists to promote a “peaceful and tolerant” image of their country through their work
ArchiveArtist interview
The art of protest: Interview with Nancy Spero
Still angry in her 80s
ArchiveLawrence Gagosian
News from New York: Larry Gagosian gets exposed while US presidents get hosed
Meanwhile, doctors form an art club and Mimran takes on Type A
ArchiveArt fairs
Allora & Calzadilla: sonic warfare for Moore Space project
The artists have installed a concrete-grey fortification inside the gallery as an anti-war statement
Archive US politics
Amateur painter's Anti-Bush painting in cafeteria exhibition enrages Republicans
But California Attorney General defends freedom of speech
Archive US politics
As conservatives switch their sights from art to social issues, are the culture wars over for artists?
The Bush administration and its supporters now have their guns trained on social policy
ArchiveExhibitions
Nancy Spero's War series on display at Galerie Lelong
The artistic equivalent of standing in front of a tank
ArchiveWar & Conflict
Images of the Iraq war
Brutality and the bad, bad taste of evil
Archive US politics
Artists lead anti-war protests as the US prepares to invade Iraq
Polls show the public could not care less what the art world thinks
ArchiveRoyal Academy of Arts
Anti-American slogans by artists are painted over, allegedly for fear of alienating a US sponsor
An act of censorship or tact?
ArchiveSeptember 2001
Luc Tymans: on pigeon power
Belgium's representative at this year's Venice Biennale explains why pigeons are not symbols of peace, how he depicts violence without actually showing it and why he returned to painting
ArchiveSeptember 2001
Jenny Holzer: towards the mot juste
The US artist on text being just one medium in her work and how trying to measure up to Goya can keep her motionless for months
ArchiveArtist interview
Leon Golub is still getting to the real at the Brooklyn Museum of Art
Charles Saatchi and Eli Broad both collect him, but only 13 US museums have examples of this artistic rebel’s work
ArchiveBooks
Books: Documenting war, populism, protest and propaganda
Three books show that the depiction of war in art is as various as other human responses to the phenomenon
ArchiveBooks
Books: Modernism behind the Iron Curtain and in wartime Paris
The progress of Modernism in the Communist States and the response of the French Avant-garde to World War I are examined in these two books
ArchivePolitical Art
What's on in New York: From Andre Emmerich to Zabriskie
Major show of political art dominates at John Weber Gallery, and there is also a new group of Rauschenberg’s (this year’s flavour) and Beckmann, Barlach, Lehmbruck and Constable on offer
CommentPolitics
Philip Guston drew Richard Nixon's face as a hairy scrotum and phallus—what would he make of President Trump?
The physiognomy of deviousness, greed, ruthless opportunism, risible self-importance and gobsmacking albeit garden variety stupidity provides artists of Guston’s bent and calibre with a virtually bottomless well of imagery
Robert Storr